The Colonization Essay

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Imperialism, is the domination by one country of the political, economic, or cultural life of another country or region. From the year 1800 to the year 1914, imperialism was a necessary attempt to improve the nations of the world. In the three decades after the Berlin Conference on Africa, European powers occupied and colonized areas in Africa . This period was also known as the Scramble for Africa. The Scramble for Africa affected the natives of Africa socially in many different ways. For one, in the Congo the white settlers (mainly King Leopold’s) had taken advantage of “The Rubber Boom” to subjugate the natives of Africa and force them to work in the forests looking for rubber sap. Millions died under King Leopold's personal rule, which included a barbarous system of forced labour and systematic terror (Document H) , another way it affected Africa and its natives was the way the missionaries were trying to change the culture and beliefs of the natives, lastly the take over of raw materials from the colonies which boosted the European economies at the time pushed the settlers to take the materials from Africa.
“The Rubber Boom” was one of the most detrimental effects that Africa had to go through between the years of 1871 and 1914. King Leopold had claimed an area of Africa known as “The Congo Free State” to use for his own good (removing rubber for his companies while using African slaves), this would not look good on him so he produced an excoriating, detailed report, complete with sworn testimony from witnesses, which is in many ways a model for the reports produced by contemporary organizations like Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch. This made him look good in the eyes of many (King Leopold’s Ghost & Document H). Natives had to search out vines through inhospitable jungle. In Leopold's Congo it was an illegal offense to pay any Africans with money, so other more brutal forms of exhortation were employed. The British vice consul in 1899 gave a...